A Broken Arm

     In the afternoon of our last day in Zaigraevo, Ike fell from a fence and broke his arm.  It was very visibly broken, so we got into the car and drove to the local clinic.  Ike was very brave.  His sisters were having a much harder time than he was!  I hugged and comforted the girls, and Leif carried Ike to the car.  Then we drove to the nearest clinic in the next village over (11 kilometers away).

They were able to get him in right away for an x-ray.

waiting to see the doctor

     The doctor at this clinic specialized in treating adults.  He said that if this bone were broken in an adult, he would give him surgery.  But he wanted us to go to the city for further consultation with an orthopedist who specialized in kids.

     Even though we had our car with us and told them we could drive, they ordered an ambulance for us.  At the time, this seemed kind of frivolous, but in hindsight it was a blessing for several reasons.  It enabled Leif to drive back to Zaigraevo, pack up our things, and pick up the girls.  It also enabled Ike and I to get to the hospital in Ulan-Ude quite quickly and to not wait in any lines when we arrived.  Plus, it is exciting for a little boy to ride on an ambulance.  ;)  The ambulance in the picture is a very common older ambulance seen here.  It's nickname is a "tablet" because it looks like a pill you would take when you're sick.  But we got to ride in a newer white ambulance.  In the background you can see a fire that had just started in the woods.  Everything is so dry right now!

     I read a few chapters to Ike from a Boxcar Children book until I saw his eyes begin to droop.  It was very hot in the ambulance.  Ike napped for a few minutes, and then woke up very chatty.  The ride was 70 kilometers.

In this picture, Ike was handing me his bandaid as they were wheeling him to surgery.

     I had nice mom adrenaline going through all of this, so I never really felt worried. Everyone was very nice and accommodating at the emergency room.  The surgeon was able to quickly look at the x-ray and tell us that Ike would need a small operation under general anesthesia. This was the first that I felt nervous for our guy, as he's never had a surgery before and I didn't know how he'd respond to the anesthesia.  I knew people were praying, and I also had been reading that week in the Bible about God's peace and how He wants us to give all of our cares to him with thanksgiving.  Ike and I prayed together and they whisked him away.  Up until this point, he had asked all of his questions via me to the doctor and nurses about what he could expect, how long he'd be asleep, would the shot hurt, etc.  I thought that as soon as I said goodbye to him at the elevator it may be really difficult for him to be away from me.  But instead, he switched over to Russian immediately and himself starting asking tons of questions to the nurses.  I could tell they got a kick out of him.  I could hear him chatting away all down the elevator.  =)

The nurses were all so kind.  Ike had a splinter in his finger, and this nurse took time to try to get it out.

     Another special blessing that God gave was the timing of when Leif and the girls came to bring us clothes and some food items.  It was past visiting hours, so I had to meet them outside of the hospital.  They arrived RIGHT after I'd said goodbye to Ike, so this was very nice for my mom-heart to be with the rest of the family.  We all prayed together, too, and then shortly after I returned to the room, Ike was already being wheeled back to our room.  I learned later that the "operation" was only setting his bone.  They didn't actually cut him open.  He was so groggy and funny.  He was also VERY thirsty.  It had been over 100 degrees that day, and all of the kids had been running around in the sun.  But Ike wasn't allowed to eat or drink for several hours before the surgery, and then they made him wait 2 hours after the surgery, too, to drink.  He kept dozing and then waking up every 10 minutes or so to ask if he could drink yet . Sometimes he asked me in English and sometimes in Russian.  The girls had sent him silly photos, so for the last 10 minutes, he looked at those to help distract him.



     We were in the hospital for three days, but because of the nature of being there (not life-threatening) and the fact that they gave us our OWN ROOM (we didn't even ask for it)!!!, it actually turned out to be a special mother-son vacation!  Ike even asked, "Can we come here again sometime?" We walked around, met other moms and kids, read books, watched a few shows and a movie,

played games (I had to set up a little wall for Ike to set up his cards without me seeing them),

chatted with family on the phone (on this day, a 3-way chat with Grandma Irene and the girls),

and prepared for a couple of parties!

     Ella's 9th birthday fell on our first full day in the hospital.  I just happened to have balloons in my purse and we made fun signs for her.

This sign was Ike's idea.  ;)

waiting for the family to enter the building

... and a fun party we had!  I know this was not Ella's dream way to spend her birthday.  But she was sweet about it, we made the most of it and had a special time together.  Because we had our own room, I got special permission for all three to enter at the same time. 

Anneka made this special card for Ella.

     I called Anneka that morning and told her where to find the gifts and wrapping supplies.  She was so responsible and got everying together-- and did a beautiful job!  

     Ella has been wanting roller blades for a long time, and she was thrilled to get them this year!  She tried them out all over the room.  In this picture, Ike was talking on the phone with his friend, Bulat, who had just gotten several stitches in his lip.  They were sharing wound stories. Speaking of boys with injuries, our floor was mostly boys with broken arms and legs.  I think there were 2 girls and 40 boys!!!

We had some fun birthday snacks.  =)

     We played a family game to top off Ella's little hospital party.  Ike got to be on my team this time, which made it much easier for holding cards!!

     The next day, we celebrated Father's Day!  Leif and the girls picked up lunch and we had another happy afternoon together. On Sundays, the visiting hours are longer than on other days, which was delightful for them to be able to come straight from church!  Leif truly is a Super Papa.  He had to take care of packing up everything in Zaigraevo and settling back in at home after a week of being gone, plus bringing Ike and me all of the things we needed, plus extra birthday details (baking pies with Ella and planning her Monday party), plus getting our car window fixed (I accidentally smashed it by backing into a pole when going for supplies for the building project),  plus picking up a teammate from the airport, hosting the German team for a night, and taking them to the airport.  All of this time Ike and I were practically vacationing in the hospital!🤣  He deserves a gold star!

     I noticed that there were some things different and some things the same from what I know of my limited hospital experiences in Russia and the States.  Here, there are visiting hours from 4:00-7:00pm.  I found this to be very restful.  Also, there's nap time/quiet time from 2:00-4:00pm each day.  Everything is very quiet and calm and doctors and nurses don't come in, so you can plan on that time to rest.  There is a cafeteria on the floor.  Patients who can't get out of  bed get their meals delivered to them, but everyone else goes to the cafeteria.  They also have an afternoon snack after rest time and deliver warm milk before bed.  I'm not sure if this was the case for every bathroom, but the bathroom nearest us didn't have toilet paper or soap, so these are the first things I bought (and a hand towel).  Bathrooms are shared.  There wasn't a garbage can in our room. The nurses also all seemed to have lots of different jobs, one of which was to clean.  They cleaned our room at least twice a day. You had to get  special key to open the window.  I opened ours, and then the nurses were all concerned that the breeze may make us catch a cold.  I assured them that we are hearty folk and liked the breeze, and then they were ok with it.  =)  On Mondays, all of the doctors come to all of the rooms.  The nurses made us tidy up perfectly (no books or games or toothbrushes or fruit out) before they came.  There were 8 doctors, which was a bit overwhelming when I thought it was just for us.  But then I found out they do it with everyone on Mondays.  The doctor also recommended that we stay another 5 days!  I told them that we didn't do that for broken bones in America, and that we were ready to leave.  I told them we didn't want to miss Ella's birthday party (at a local park at 1:00pm).  I guess normal leaving time is 4:00pm, but they worked hard, even during lunch break!- to get us out in time.  We made it to Ella's party at 12:58!  We are thanking God for his many blessings!!!

An interesting end note: since we don't have Russian insurance, we paid for everything upon leaving the hospital.  (we will then send receipts along to our insurance company in America for coverage).  For everything- ambulance, x-rays, operation with general anesthesia, bloodwork for both of us, and three nights in the hospital- it cost $600.  While we wouldn't have stayed in the hospital for this in the States, I'm guessing the bill would have been much higher, even without the ambulance or hospital stay.

Work Project with a Team from Germany

     At the beginning of June we had the special privilege of joining together with a team of three from Germany for a work project in Zaigraevo.  It was especially wonderful because we already have known Christa and Jens for several years (and have even stayed with them in their home).  Now it was their turn to come to Siberia!!  We had breakfast waiting for them after they flew in, as we live very close to the airport.

     Right after breakfast, we drove to Lake Baikal for an overnight stay.  Their time here was short (just over a week), so Inka wanted to make sure they saw this famous lake before the work week began.  The kids pretended to be the Boxcar children in this cool old freight container.

The adults talked while the kids played.  It's always so nice to be at the beach!

Jami, Christa, and Inka in front of the lighthouse in Turka

     We stayed at our friends' (Ira and Alexei) house.  They were so gracious to let us all stay there!  Their son, Egor, is very into basketball, and Arthur (from Germany) is a basketball coach!  Artur was so kind to give the kids all a lesson and special attention on the court.  The adults had fun, too!!

     Inka, Christa, Jens, and Artur headed back home after lunch, but we stayed for a few more hours to get some time with Ira and Alexei.  Alexei and Egor invited Leif and the kids fishing.  We all enjoyed the day.



 We then drove the 3 or 4 hours back to Zaigraevo.  Our work week had officially begun!  We stayed with Inka's neighbors, the Ratinkov family.  We had breakfast together each morning, and then Inka made lunch and dinner for all of us each day.



    Over the course of the week, we took down this building and moved it onto Valera's property.  It will be a woodshop.  Valera will work there and also bring in other guys to work alongside with him.  It will create jobs for guys who are coming out of addictions and would otherwise have a hard time finding work.  It is also a chance for Valera to pour into these men and mentor them.



     Most of the people from our SEND team came for at least a couple of days to help, together with the Germans.  We all worked well as a team and enjoyed this time, even as the days were very hot (90s and 100s), and even as our muscles were aching with every movement after the first day!!



     One of the big jobs the first two days was taking nails out of all of the boards.  So. Many. Nails.  We got to be really good at it!



     Once the nails were out, this little team began to straighten the nails to be reused, as nothing goes to waste here!

     We were pleasantly surprised by how fast our little team was able to take down the building.



     One of the jobs was to paint on the various logs and boards which side and number of the workshop they were on.  This would make our job easier later.  We should have done this with the floorboards, too!  We thought they were more or less the same size, but it took some maneuvering and several tries and some cutting to get them all to fit.

     Ella and Vera painted the Russian letter "Л" to show the which boards went on the face (лицо) of the building.

Ike and Leif, prying up metal that protected the floor and wall from the furnace.

It took only 2 days to completely disassemble everything.



     I didn't get any good pictures during the actual moving of stuff, but the kids loved to ride in the cab of the truck when it was full of logs and in the back in the return trip to fill up with more.  The logs were quite a bit longer than the truck.  It's amazing it didn't topple over!!

carrying some of the frames that were too long for the truck to the new location

     The second phase of our week was putting the woodshop back together again.  This took twice as much time (4 days).  We had already poured the new foundation last summer, so this part was ready to go!

putting in the floor (and sawdust underneath as insulation)

   

walking back to Inka's for dinner (with our basket of water and snacks in tow)

As you can imagine, the logs were very heavy!

pounding the logs into place

     

     An interesting thing about these log-styled buildings is that they need this hay (maybe mixed with horse hair??) stuffed between each layer of logs.  It comes in rolls, and Nettie rolled out long strips to prepare for the next log to lay on.

     Then, we had to add "stuffing" to fill in any holes so that cold air doesn't seep in in the wintertime.  We stuffed and stuffed and stuffed!

     The heaviest part of all were the beams that stretched across the ceilings.  After the guys got these in place, the roof frames felt as light as feathers!

     Nettie, Lisa, and I were in charge of putting the floorboards in on the second floor.  It was a bit of a puzzle in some parts.  We had stacks of all different length and widths of boards that we passed up to Nettie.  Ike and his buddy, Vitya liked being up above.  Sometimes they helped a bit, too.

a trip to the store for ice cream one evening before bed

     The kids helped some, and they also played and played and played!  It was great to see them running through the woods, having water fights, laughing, and having fun.

hanging out, reading, during the hottest part of the day

     It was so hot that on the fourth day, I took the kids to a pool in the neighboring village.  There's a sauna in between the boys and girls locker room. I didn't realize this and was humored to find the kids "warming up" in the sauna, even though it was 100 degrees outside!!

     It was soon after I took this picture on the fifth day that Ike fell from this fence and broke his arm.  We didn't get to be there for the completion of the roof, but were thankful to have been part of such a special team.  We pray the Lord uses this workshop for His glory!!

Here are a few more pictures from the last day....

     

Valera, on the VERY STEEP new roof!!

     And I'll end with one last picture!  Inka and I were very excited to find hamburger buns.  I was told that I couldn't find them anywhere in town, but at one store a lady agreed to look in the back and she found these!!  Leif, Anneka, and Ella got to eat dinner with the team before heading to the hospital to bring clothes for Ike and me (in the next blog).  Ella was surprised by a special dessert and several birthday gifts from our dear German friends!  How wonderful it is that we have brothers and sisters in Christ!